Danny Finkleman is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 journalist and radio host, best known for his work on CBC Radio

CBC Radio

CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...

. He was host of Finkleman's 45s

Finkleman's 45s

Finkleman's 45s was a Canadian radio show, which aired Saturday evenings from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. on CBC Radio One starting on October 5, 1985 and running until June 25, 2005. In the show Danny Finkleman played popular songs from the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, and talked about anything he felt...

from 1985 until 2005, when he retired from CBC.

Finkleman began working at CBC in 1967 after completing a degree in law at the University of Manitoba

University of Manitoba

The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...

. He hosted a show called Danny Finkleman's Saturday Morning Show from 1972 to 1979. He also worked for This Country in the Morning

This Country in the Morning

This Country in the Morning was a nationally broadcast Canadian radio program, which aired on CBC Radio from 1971 to June 27, 1975. Peter Gzowski was the host from 1971 to 1974.-After the show:...

, preparing three seven-minute segments a week.

He was probably best known for Finkleman's 45s. The show played music from the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s and was noted for Danny's rants about the modern world, including topics such as modern music and computers. Finkleman was generally opposed to both. In general the show was quite informal. The show's playlist was noted for its fairly wide selection of music from the period. Danny often played less famous songs than commercial "oldies" shows were able to. Favourite groups included the Shirelles

The Shirelles

The Shirelles were an African-American girl group that achieved popularity in the early 1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens , Doris Coley , Addie "Micki" Harris , and Beverly Lee...

, the Diamonds

The Diamonds

The Diamonds are a Canadian vocal quartet who rose to prominence in the 1950s and early 1960s with sixteen Billboard hit records. The original members were Dave Somerville , Ted Kowalski , Phil Levitt , and Bill Reed .-1950s:...

, Patti Labelle

Patti LaBelle

Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards , better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry...

, the Four Preps

The Four Preps

The Four Preps are an American popular music male quartet. In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the group amassed eight gold singles and three gold albums...

, the Box Tops

The Box Tops

The Box Tops were a Memphis rock group of the second half of the 1960s. They are best known for the hits "The Letter," "Neon Rainbow," "Soul Deep," "I Met Her in Church," and "Cry Like A Baby," and are considered a major blue-eyed soul group of the period...

, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Georgie Fame and the True Blues

Georgie Fame

Georgie Fame is a British rhythm and blues and jazz singer and keyboard player. The one-time rock and roll tour musician, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman.-Early life:Fame took piano lessons from the...

, The Crew-Cuts

The Crew-Cuts

The Crew-Cuts were a Canadian vocal quartet, that made a number of popular records that charted in the United States and worldwide. They named themselves after the then popular crew cut haircut, one of the first connections made between pop music and hairstyle...

, Paul Anka

Paul Anka

Paul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...

, Otis Redding

Otis Redding

Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...

 and Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield

Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...

. Finkleman disliked the Rolling Stones and partly blamed them, among many others, for the decline of music in the 1970s. According to Finkleman, the shows title was loosely based on the name of Gilmour's Albums

Gilmour's Albums

Gilmour's Albums was one of the longest-running radio shows on CBC Radio, and was hosted by former newspaper reporter Clyde Gilmour.The show started in 1957, and its format consisted of selections of music, hand-picked by Gilmour, many from his own vast personal record collection...

, a popular variety show on CBC at the time Finkleman's show was conceived.

One of Finkleman's central ideas was that the politicization of music in the mid-1970s ruined music, making it "mean spirited", "pretentious" and "ugly". Among other bands that took a turn for the worse, according to Finkleman, were the Beatles. He thinks that the Beatles lost their touch after Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...

, and the Beach Boys after Good Vibrations

Good Vibrations

"Good Vibrations" is a song by American rock band The Beach Boys. Composed and produced by Brian Wilson, the song's lyrics were written by Wilson and Mike Love....

. Another feature of Danny's character on the show was his opposition to e-mail

E-mail

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

. He never accepted e-mail for the show because he said it was too distracting and was too much work.

Finkleman retired from CBC radio in June, 2005 and the show ended with him. Since 1993 Finkleman had worked only part-time at the CBC; he was also a stockbroker at Canaccord Capital in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

. His brother, Ken Finkleman

Ken Finkleman

Ken Finkleman is a Canadian television and film writer, producer and actor.In Canada, Finkleman is best known as the writer, creator and producer of the CBC Television series The Newsroom, in which he starred as television news producer George Findlay...

, is also a well known Canadian media personality.

Danny’s rants duly recorded from his CBC program "Finkleman's 45s"

• With new technology it’s 17 key strokes for a Snapple. In the old days it was 3 strokes: 1-8-7.
• If the telephone was just invented it would be promoted as your new “business communication solution.”
• Look it’s snowing outside (as an antidote to the media hysteria about a simple snowstorm).
• Some guy using a debit card to buy a box of Glossettes. Debit cards should be banned for purchases under $20. Automatic tellers are everywhere. Toronto (Ottawa) is not a tough town. Take a chance and carry some money with you.
• Left-wingers should find out what it’s like to make a payroll.
• Only 3% of the fibre-optic cable they are digging up our roads for is being used.
• We don’t need answering machines. If we don’t answer the phone they can call back. No big deal.
• The ridiculous advertisement about the watch that kept time to the millionth of a second because you wouldn’t want to be late for an appointment.
• People got their clothes stained by leaning on a freshly painted table in a boardroom because an office worker wasn’t keeping his email application up-to-date. Simply use a “Wet Paint” sign (that was really hilarious!).
• Most computers are just expensive whiteout.
• Your children will be failures if you don’t have high-speed Internet access - hogwash.
• It costs $4,000 for a treadmill? Go for a walk!
• What is a 20-year-old woman with tattoos all over their neck going to look like at 50?
• My computer is a $2,000 paper dispenser.
• A good whack on the rear end is the best “child psychology.”
• The Bay’s “Shopping is good” ad. Is that’s what’s good now? Shopping? Not honesty, loyalty, or love, etc?
• Completely inaccurate weather forecasts even with satellite pictures.
• Polyester is now called micro-fibre.
• People saying, “Have a nice weekend.” on Tuesday.
• Keeping up with the 46 teams NHL is a full time job.
• The plot of most movies these days is dynamite.
• “Now ~ Joshua!” with that weird tone. Talk you kids like they are human beings.
• Lazy-boy therapy (I’ve tried it and it works). I love to pull that handle back.
• When I was a kid 300 hundred kids could go to a theatre, unaccompanied by adults and it was okay.
• Bicycle helmets for kids riding tricycles in their driveways.
• Closing kitchen cabinet doors is genetic.
• The resurgence of pick-up and ball hockey as a re-action against organized structured sports.
• In my house every day is laundry day. There is not enough water in the Ottawa River to wash my “environmentally concerned” kid’s clothes.
• Office workers wearing cut off jeans to work.
• Before email life was much more civil.
• What is an administrative assistant? A secretary?
• We managed before all this digital technology.
• There are no bums or hobos any more. Nowadays we have the “homeless”.
• Body cleansing gel! Is that liquid soap?
• The more the complicated the technology, the more that can go wrong.
• It’s 22o but with the humidity it feels more like 28o. It’s -5o but with the wind chill it feels more like -20o. They always want to make the weather feel worse than it is to create anxiety. Just give us the temperature please.
• Bread makers, choppers, ice cream machines are the new Cuisine-arts. You can now buy them on EBay for -$8.00 (that’s minus $8). You give people $8 to take it away. Just clutter.
• Everyone nowadays has a telephone plan, a cable plan, or a checking plan. Just give me a phone.
• No one solves problems anymore. They provide solutions. Does Loblaws provide hunger and thirst solutions?
• Use of the word menu on computer applications has changed and distorted the meaning of the word. The word menu used to have a good connotation. It was used in restaurants to select your favourite food. Now it’s used for complicated telephone push button selections and annoying computer applications.
• Fishers not fishermen. People in Newfoundland and New Brunswick have never used the word fishers. But we don’t want to offend anyone. Danny Finkleperson. Sony Walkperson.
• New SUVs have $2,000 geo-location satellite devices on board that no one knows how to use. Get a $2 map from Canadian Tire.
• He (a golfer) is having issues with his putter. Issues with his son sure but not with his putter surely.
• The New Democratic Party changed from the CCF 50 years ago. Shouldn’t the “New” be dropped? For example, the group “The Young Rascals” changed their name to “The Rascals” after only a few years.
• Tim Horton’s steeped tea is just a bag. The difference between a medium and a large is $.40 so they are charging you $.40 for warm water. Just leave the bag in longer.
• Everyone gives Gift Certificates these days. How about the universal gift certificate, CASH!
• Those ridiculous laser levels for $50 will end up as clutter. Use a $2 bubble or just eyeball your picture. How often do you put up cabinets up on your wall to justify a $50 purchase?
• People are waiting for High Definition (HD) Television to come down in price before they buy one. It is $2,000 now but it will soon be $900. I’m waiting for them to give me money to buy one.
• The news media are in the business of creating anxiety so you will keep watching so they can deliver you to advertisers.
• I have a “Palm Pilot.” I take a pen and write on the palm of my hand.
• The Greatest Canadian television show should really be called The Most Popular Canadian.
• School kids on a bus using incredibly foul language but what if someone was to light up a cigarette? All hell would break loose. That’s terrible put it out!
• A brisk 30-minute walk a day takes care all of your cardiovascular needs but no one promotes it. Why? Because there is no money in it – there is no gear that can be sold. It’s the same with Ultimate Frisbee – no equipment is needed.
• Get the defibrillator out! (When mentioning something really stupid people do.)
• The “Olympic community?” Is a weightlifter from Poland in the same community as a tennis table player from Peru?
• You can’t get through to people or executives by phone nowadays. It’s like Fort Knox. You are either in the service business or not.
• 7-Grain bread? Can you name seven grains? 12-Grains? You’ll have to go Indonesia for that.
• 90% of people who get tattoos regret it.
• There are 364 colours of paint at Canadian Tire. Do we really have to have that many? Doesn’t it just create anxiety in the consumer? Too much choice.
• Ban the slap shot from hockey. It’s random and you can’t see it.
• Flying to Halifax on West Jet, Danny heard the following: “The plane will be flown by Captain Bob and his assistant Dave.” It’s too familiar. It’s not friendly, it’s familiar. Getting on the plane they said, “Have a good trip Dan.” I’m 65 and they are 27.
• Guests are to board at Gate 7. Guests? Guests are invited – I paid $400 for this trip.
• Body Spray from Old Spice. Hmmm. Isn’t that perfume? Wear this stuff and you will have to fight off the girls. Even if you are obnoxious?
• In a restaurant servers say, “Have a great dinner.” Well that’s up to the cook if I have a great dinner or not isn’t it? Not me. If the food is great I’ll have a great dinner.
• Eating a $70 meal at a restaurant gives me indigestion. I can’t enjoy the food because it cost too much.
• When I was a kid and got into trouble at school the teacher and my parents were both on the same side. These days parents side with their kids. “My kid has riiiights!”
• Q. Will you sponsor me $1 a kilometre for an upcoming 10K race? A. No but I’ll give you $10 if you do something useful like mowing my lawn.

External Links

• Archive of Finkleman's 45s page